A covering structure such as a plastic engine cover or the like may be attached to an underlying substructure such as an engine block by passing elongated fasteners such as connection bolts or the like through openings in the covering structure for engagement with the substructure. In this regard, the elongated fasteners may extend either towards the substructure (i.e. away from the covering structure) or towards the covering structure (i.e. away from the substructure). It is known to use grommets of rubber or other resilient compressible material held within the openings of the covering structure for disposition in surrounding relation to the connection bolts. Such grommets are intended to prevent bolt movement and accompanying rattling.
As will be appreciated, in the manufacturing process, a covering structure may be produced at a location remote from the point of assembly to the substructure In known prior designs, the fasteners or fastening nuts are not captured within the covering structure prior to being shipped. Rather, prior designs typically require an individual user to manually attach the fastening components within the covering structure and to then attach the covering structure to the engine block or other substructure manually. During such manual assembly procedures, the typical practice has been to use grommets having relatively thin integral flanges at either end connected by a neck with an axial bore extending the length of the grommet. Such grommets are typically forced through a hole in the covering structure and then a metal stamping or bushing is pushed into the axial bore. An elongated fastening element such a threaded bolt or the like then may project through the stamping or bushing in connecting relation between the covering structure and the substructure. Such a practice provides good containment and vibration damping in many environments of use. However, in some instances, insertion of the traditional style grommets may be cumbersome due to the tight tolerances involved. This may be particularly problematic in the event that the covering structure is relatively fragile, since application of improper or excessive force may cause damage. Accordingly, an improved grommet construction and procedure of use may represent a desirable advancement over the known art.